Drive-By Truckers have released the Black Ice Vérité deluxe edition accompaniment to their most acclaimed album in years English Oceans. Featuring an additional 8 tracks with a trio of acoustic recordings from their Bannaroo performance along with new, old, and recreated tracks from this years HeAthens Homecoming Weekend at the 40 Watt Club in the band’s hometown of Athens, GA. The DVD contains footage from their 40 Watt Club performance. Vinyl copies of Black Ice Vérité are pressed on white vinyl and packaged with new artwork, seen below.

New Orleans rocker plays Lee’s Palace in Toronto March 31 and Corona Theatre in Montreal April 1

“A flashback to the days when wild-eyed young guitar-slingers made the most dangerous dance music around.”– Rolling Stone

Following his first ever headline tour, Benjamin Booker has confirmed a run of North American dates this Spring, playing even larger venues. The tour stops in Toronto March 31 at Lee’s Palace and in Montreal on April 1 at the Corona Theatre. Full dates are below, and all will go on sale Friday Nov 14.

“CAIRO is a band that has impressed us not only with their musical talent, but with the savvy they have displayed in making this album.”– Coalition Music

We take because we are fragile, because we know it never really matters who we were meant to be. What matters is that we do more than just tiptoe forward. That we assemble the worn versions of the things we take into messy piles – to keep from forgetting or maybe just so we know what to forget and what to keep.

CAIRO is the soundtrack to the things we have taken and left behind. They are the soundtrack to both taking and leaving, the nuance of a 2 a.m. exhale or a pretty pair of eyes in a crowded room. They are the cadence of everyday life.

People should not get along so well. It’s strange. Unsettling, even. But they do. When one falters, the others create symmetry.

You could call it folk. Or rock. Or ambience. Or experimental. But that would be denying the parts that make a whole. It’s real! It’s personal! It is love! Yes, love! That messy gooey thing that we so desperately hope will make us whole. We can all agree on this, can we not?

It’s absurd that CAIRO works. But to understand why it does, you only need to listen to ‘A History of Reasons,’ their full-length debut album, out Jan. 20, 2015 on MapleMusic Recordings, co-produced by the band and Nygel Asselin (Half Moon Run, Air Marshal Landing).

On the third self-titled album from LA hardcore outfit The Bronx‘s alter ego Mariachi el Bronx the band ditched the rulebook and dusted off old sequencers, synths and an ARP. The 10 striking songs – featuring singles ‘New Beat’ and ‘Wildfires’ - that resulted fuse traditional melodies with modern ambience. Watch the day-glo-orange coloured vinyl of (III) getting pressed to match the psychedelic cover art here.

The original Primus lineup makes their studio album return for the first time in 19 years on their new release ‘Primus & The Chocolate Factory.’ This tribute to the 1971 Willy Wonka movie features deep reworks of the influential and distinctive tunes. Five vinyl copies of the album will feature gold coloured vinyl and free lifetime tickets to Primus concerts, watch records get pressed in the promo video here. See the full list of special album tour dates here. Cold War Kids have released their 5th studio album ‘Hold My Home‘produced by guitarist Dann Gallucci and Lars Stalfors. Vocalist Nathan Willet describes the album with lyrics from its title track: “You’ve moved every year or two since you were 18. Home is no longer an actual place you return to. It’s ephemeral; it’s where you go in your memory to recall friends, your identity, your version of family. You can’t touch or hold on to it, but you can feel home anywhere. But where are your roots?” Watch the video for the first single “All This Could Be Yours” or the anthemic follow up “First.”

Vacationer, the collaborative effort from Philadelphia-based vocalist/producer Kenny Vasoli and his production partners Grant Wheeler and Matthew Young (Body Language), today premiered the video for ‘Go Anywhere’ at Paste.com.

‘Go Anywhere’ is the second single from Vacationer’s acclaimed sophomore album ‘Relief,’ released earlier this year on Downtown Records/Fontana North. The video was shot in Glenmoore, PA by director/producer Matt Albasi, who wanted to capture Vacationer’s dreamy, escapist vibes. The idea was simple: put the band in a hot air balloon and film it. It was a perfect fit.

Vacationer is currently on a North American tour, which makes stops in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Toronto in November. See full dates below for details.

Ten years have come and gone since Cold War Kids first took to the stage in their homegrown Southern California scene. Time is typically unkind to indie rock bands. So how is it that Cold War Kids are still here in 2014, selling out tours and releasing their fifth album in a decade, ‘Hold My Home,‘ amidst these 40 seasons of torrential fate winds, while so many of their peers have vanished?

“We worked really fucking hard, that’s the answer,” says vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Nathan Willett. “We worked really hard and we were successful, which is freakishly impossible, and we should embrace it. That’s our story.”

From his post at the front, Willett — along with the band’s bassist and visual director Matt Maust — has led Cold War Kids through the tricky 21st century rock and roll landscape, soaring over the peaks and facing the valleys head-on while carving out a place of the band’s own. Reaping sky-high praise from a mid-2000s blogosphere then growing wings as a live show juggernaut, they stand now as both a different animal and an unaltered beast all at once.

The definitive Primus line-up - Les Claypool, guitarist Larry LaLonde, and drummer Tim Alexander - is back together and set to release their first full-length studio set in nearly 20 years, ‘Primus & the Chocolate Factory,’ due out on ATO Records / MapleMusic Recordings on October 21.

“The idea was to combine the Frog Brigade and Primus, and do this record,’ says Claypool. I think like a good portion of the planet, we were all pretty put off by the remake of the ‘Willy Wonka’ movie – the Tim Burton version. I really wanted to pay homage to a film [1971's 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,' starring Gene Wilder] that was very important to me as a kid and very influential to me musically. So that’s what we did. And as opposed to just going in and recording the songs and playing them the way they are in the film, we twisted them up a bit…twisted them up a lot.” Listen to classic track ‘Pure Imagination’ re-imagined, which Rolling Stone premiered in July

It felt so good, in fact, Claypool decided to take Primus into the studio to prepare the soundtrack for an album release. Claypool admits he’s always, “in some way, wanted to be Willy Wonka,” and, also, that he’s always wanted to work a cover of ‘The Candy Man’ – a memorable number from the film’s soundtrack — into Primus sets. “Hell, I’ve been doing the line from the boat ride on stage since the ’80′s,” then Les sings, “There’s no earthly way of knowing, which direction we are going…”

Butch Walker has announced his highly anticipated seventh full-length album ‘Afraid Of Ghosts,’ out February 3 via Dangerbird Records/MapleMusic Recordings. With his remarkably diverse resume that includes everything from guitar god to GRAMMY and CMA nominated producer, Walker’s new LP shows both skill and tenderness. The production was helmed by Ryan Adams at his PAX AM Studios in L.A., and features friends & special guests Johnny Depp and Bob Mould. With gritty hints of folk, pop and rock, ‘Afraid Of Ghosts’ weaves a journey through life, love, death and everything in between.

Pulled from the band’s past seven odd years of writing, recording and releasing records, Lost Loves is a career‐spanning album for Minus the Bear. The black sheep that didn’t quite fit in with Planet of Ice, OMNI, and Infinity Overhead these hard to let go songs fit seamlessly together on this new record. Available on smoky black/yellow swirl coloured vinyl below, listen to ‘The Lucky Ones’ on Soundcloud. Recorded in the harsh winters of rural Manitoba comes Jess Reimer‘s new album ‘The Nightjar and the Garden.’ Produced by Blue Rodeo keyboardist Bob Wiseman, Nightjar displays an artist with many facets, unwaveringly connected to the soul of North American music. Listen to the raw beauty of her vocals on lead single‘Maggie The Retriever (Bang Bang).’

Hurray For The Riff Raff has just launched a fundraising campaign via Indiegogo for The Body Electric Fund which will raise money for organizations combatting violent crime and the degradation of marginalized communities.

Donations to the Indiegogo campaign, running through October 22, will support both the creation of a video for ‘The Body Electric,’ from the group’s acclaimed 2014 debut album Small Town Heroes, that will raise awareness of violence against women, minorities and LGBT groups and a variety of organizations working to promote peace for those in these communities, including The Third Wave Fund and The Trayvon Martin Foundation. See more on the campaign at Indiegogo.

“The process of writing ‘The Body Electric’ was very powerful for me,” says Hurray For The Riff Raff’s Alynda Lee Segarra. “I felt the waves of a 26-year span of desires to see all women free from violence crash into me. It was anger, a desire for justice and a dream of change. I hope to use our platform as a band to shine the spotlight on those organizations that do the work that can truly change our futures.”

The band hopes to raise $20,000 to fund the creation of ‘The Body Electric’ video and The Body Electric Fund. $10,000 will go toward the making of a music video to shed light on violence among not only women but also minorities and the LGBT community. After the video expenses have been met, the rest of the money raised will go to The Body Electric Fund. The Body Electric Fund is powered by RPM, a nonprofit agency that provides artists with strategy and support for their activism and philanthropy.

Manitoba singer-songwriter’s sophomore LP produced by Bob Wiseman, with guest vocals from Ron Sexsmith“She plays alt-country as it should be: Original, engaging, low on the affectation and high on the musicianship, vocals, and songs.”– Sarah Greene, NOW

Pre-order ‘The Nightjar And The Garden’ on iTunes

There is no denying that an artist is a reflection of their environment, and the harsh beauty of rural Manitoba is at the heart of Jess Reimer‘s work. She has been one of the Winnipeg roots music scene’s best-kept secrets for several years, but with her new album, The Nightjar and The Garden, released Oct. 7 on Pipe & Hat/MapleMusic Recordings, Jess is set to have the wider world embrace her.

With a voice that combines the grittiness of Lucinda Williams with the pure power of Neko Case, it’s hardly a surprise that Jess attracted the attention of legendary Blue Rodeo founding keyboardist (and Manitoba native) Bob Wiseman, who produced The Nightjar and The Garden. Wiseman’s fondness of vintage sounds and a live approach in the studio emphasizes the raw beauty of Jess’ vocals, as well as the wide range of emotions in her songwriting, from the hard twang of ‘Maggie The Retriever (Bang Bang)’ to the gospel-infused ‘I Want To Believe.’

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage (Canada Music Fund) Nous reconnaissons l'appui financier du gouvernement du Canada par l'entremise du ministère du Patrimoine canadien (Canada Music Fund)

Produced with the Assistance of the MuchFACT (A Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent)
PromoFACT Award Program, Supported by the MuchMore Network.